Not-So Imaginary Friends
by SeriouslyFunnySketcher
Summary: Sometimes we don't know what we're dealing with when we have a family. That can get a little more chaotic when our family belongs to a different reality...or three or four different realities.
1. Intro

**_Note from the Author_**

**_This story is a bigger crossover than just FHIF and WOY. There are a LOT of characters. Fanfic needs to up their game, add more than two sections on the crossover option please. Alright, without further ado, welcome to NSIF_**

* * *

It was a normal day of just messaging back and forth for the two half sisters, during school even one's phone would buzz indicating the other was bored.

"I'm locked in the stall again." Nikki suddenly messaged.

"Seriously? How many times do you have to text Summer to get you out?" Andy's response came almost immediately.

"Hush, I'm trying." There was a moment of Nikki peering over the stall before she messaged "I could use some help though."

"I'll tell Summer."

* * *

The rest of the day was Nikki messaging slightly out of the ordinary things...about a friend who shouldn't really exist. Andy was intrigued, thinking it was a game, another role play with characters. Until Nikki sent one that made that thought die.

"He just tried to smuggle a basketball."

"Wait what"

"He stuffed it under his arm and tried to walk out. Nana stopped him." There was a long pause. No messages. Then.

"She can...see him, Nikki?"

"I told you he was here."

"But wasn't that just" Andy stopped. "I have a headache now."

"Sorry." A minute or so passed and Nikki added "Do you trust me?"

"Course. Why?"

"Do you believe me then? That I see him?"

With a shaky breath, Andy nodded to the phone and managed to type. "Yes." She waited.

* * *

It was a good hour before there was a reply this time, Nikki must have been busy.

"Our car just got hit by a shopping cart." Immediate panic ensued before Andy could think.

"What! Why! Who did it! What?!"

"Chill please...we called the police already."

"God why do you do this, Nikki." She paused before messaging again. "Is Wilt okay?"

* * *

**So this is an au that a friend and I have. There's a lot already to the story so these will be coming out pretty fast. We'll change a few names just for privacy since I'm using some of my real friends in this. A serious question to all of you. Do you believe in the reality of alternate dimensions?**


	2. To See or not to See

It was a while ago that Nikki told her half sister about Wilt. His appearance at her house wasn't the first, and she explained to Andy that the "friends" kept coming. It had started after the accident. An accident Andy wasn't there for, and that most of Nikki's family wished hadn't happened, details are trivial.

The accident wasn't what caused them to start appearing, however. It wasn't really known why, they just...came. And each of them seemed to be there for a reason. Nikki had spent weeks trying to figure it out, trying to make sense of it. Today she was going to test something.

"Wanna see if you can see them?" Nikki messaged suddenly.

Andy had been eating lunch and quickly responded with an all caps "YES," a piece of taco shell dangling from her mouth after she dropped the food to pick up her phone. An image popped up, loading slowly before finally becoming visible.

"He was trying to make a sandwich." Nikki had added above the image, but Andy was more focused on what she was seeing. In the middle of her screen, was a photo of Nikki's kitchen, a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam, and a knife scattered on the floor. That wasn't what caught her attention...it was the small blue blob off to the side of the objects, looking nervously to where Nikki must have been standing to take the photo.

Andy's heart almost stopped. She could see them. She was looking at one. Nikki wouldn't have made something like this on the fly. Couldn't have. For a moment she just sat there, staring.

"Are you dead?" Nikki teased after a minute of no response. The result of which was a flurry of random letters and confused words. She glanced to her side, smirking at a floating figure next to her. "That must be a yes."

"Red, you broke her." The figure sank down to her height to reveal a yellow triangle with one eye.

"Shut your face." Nikki responded. "She can see Bloo, so that means we're making progress. She can believe me now."

"If anyone can't see me they're blind!" The blob from the photo Nikki had sent made his way around the kitchen island and stood in front of her...only coming up to her knees. "I mean seriously, how bad off is your family's eyesight?" Nikki just rolled her eyes, looking back to her phone for a response.

"Can I blast him yet?" The triangle begged.

"Hey!" Bloo gave an indignant huff and looked up at the human as if begging for help.

"Give me a reason you want to blast him, and maybe I'll let you." Nikki tormented.

"I don't like him."

"Bill that is not a reason."

"Yeah! Not liking me is like not liking Little Bear!"

"Who doesn't like me?" The small brown bear cub sitting on the couch looked up from his book.

"No one doesn't like you, Little Bear. Bloo is just being a brat." Nikki called into the living room.

"Per usual." Bill added. Bloo crossed his arms. Nikki finally checked to see Andy had responded.

"I'm both excited and confused. How. What? How?" Her sister still couldn't word.

"I don't know, imaginary friends, and I don't know." It was almost a form of teasing the girls did, Andy would say random whos, whats, hows, and whys, and Nikki would answer the best she could to each in three words or less.

"Not funny. Can you make them at will?"

"...not that I'm aware." Nikki looked to Bill as if he could tell her. He was gone. "I can try. Let's see if I can make one of my characters, maybe."

* * *

A few minutes of deep thought and nothing. They didn't always appear out of thin air directly in front of her, anyways. They would often come in from another room. She tried to concentrate on someone in particular and still nothing.

"I don't think I can." She started to message Andy.

"Kid, there's a purple thing in my closet." An animatronic fox peered out of the hall closet at her, looking mildly annoyed. The closet was a walk through from the hall to her room, so the fox had access to both without leaving the closet.

"A purp-Foxy, is that purple thing taller than you?" Nikki put her phone down.

"And furry." He nodded, lifting an arm in surprise as said "thing" peered out from under his hooked hand. "Looks like the orange one."

"Lewis!" Nikki jumped up. "Not mine, but...almost." She came over to the closet and dragged the fluffy purple child out. He was a little taller than Foxy, who scaled Nikki by two inches, so he was fairly tall and his purple fur tufted out into brown hair that spiked dead above his head.

"Lewis what? Where's mom?" He demanded.

"Iiii...have a lot of explaining to do and can't do it." Nikki rubbed the back of her neck, looking anywhere but at the boy. "Bill! Can you do the telling thing again?"

"How many times do I have to do it?" Bill floated in. "I'm getting sick of saying the same things over and over again."

"Then write it down. I have to tell Andy it almost worked." Nikki grabbed her phone and plopped down on the floor right where she was. "Lewis is practically her son."

* * *

"You made who now." They were on voice chat and Nikki was half whispering for Andy to stop screaming in her ears. Every time she would say it, her sister would get loud again.

"Lewis! I was trying to make Pipsqueak or Conquer and he just-showed up in the closet." She hissed. "Now please, Papa's asleep."

"Right." Andy managed to calm down a little and looked at the phone for a second. "I'm still a little in disbelief."

"So am I. At least, that I'm not the only one who can see them. I feel less stupid knowing you can too."

"Nikki you're not stupid."

"Don't start that again!"

"Well it's true."

"Andy..." Her sister always managed to embarrass her. "Look, let's just try to figure out what's going on. Maybe Summer can help, she's crazy into interdimensional stuff and paradoxes." She said the last part saltily.

"Inter who da what now?"

A sharp buzzing in the left of Nikki's head cut her response short. She'd felt that before and was greeted by five or six other imaginary friends coming into the room. She tried to kill it out...it did not work. Instead, all the thoughts she had earlier been forming tore at the buzz until it died on its own.

"Nikki?"

"...remember how I said I was trying to make Conquer or Pip?"

"Yes?"

"Well sometimes my imagination...goes...overboard." The last part was a mumble and there was silence before Andy made confused noises into her phone. "Sorry?"

"Stop saying sorry."

"Sorry!" Both girls facepalmed, it had become a habit of Nikki's to apologize and they both knew it was silly.

"I'm only going to guess that overboard means you have new friends."

"Maybe?"

"Be glad I've never fainted."

* * *

**_Huff. There is a lot more already plotted out, so updates will be frequent._**

**_What's going on? Will anything make sense to the girls? Where are they coming from?_**


	3. Hitting the Books

It was a completely normal morning...that's what one would say if they didn't have a blue pegasus laying heavily on their chest.

"Rainbow Daaaaaash..." Nikki shoved at the pony and managed to sit up, grabbing her phone only for it to drop to the floor, just out of her reach.

"No, never. Lemme sleep forever." Dash rolled over and was pinning Nikki's knees.

"Dash please!" She reached for the phone desperately. "I need to make sure Andy's up!"

"Can't it wait?" Came the sleepy response. Dash was paffed on the snout and her eyes snapped open. "Fiiiine" She lifted her wings lazily and shimmied off the redhead, who snatched her phone and almost toppled off the bed.

"My hero." Nikki sarcastically quipped before sitting back up. "Hey, Dee you up?"

"I was up at 5" the response came almost instantly.

"Gee thanks for the wakeup call." Nikki teased. The two started their typical morning role playing, even with the others being there Nikki got bored easily. She was in the middle of a dramatic scene when she was sharply nudged...in the ankle.

"What?" She looked down to find a Siamese cat dragging her bookbag to her.

"You have five minutes to get in the car." The cat responded.

"Sagwa! Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Nikki snapped her bag up and threw it over her shoulder, telling Andy she'd be back and starting for the door. She stopped and looked back at the group. "Wilt, come on."

"I'm sorry, what?" Wilt looked up, he'd been helping Lewis get his sweater on.

"Come on. You're coming with me." She waited for him to stand up and reminded him to duck to get out the door. "I think I'm going to need some entertainment."

"Oh, I'm your entertainment? That's okay." Wilt looked at the car sitting in the driveway. "How do I get in there?"

"We'll think of something..." Nikki was looking at her boyfriend's car too, trying to think. "Get on the hood."

"I'm sorry but...isn't that a safety hazard?"

"No, Wilt. It's a fun hazard." Nikki pulled a bungee cord from her bag. She...always had a little more than necessary in her bookbag, probably to show off the large capacity. "On we go. You can hold my bag."

"Hey hon." The young man in the driver's seat didn't question Nikki bungee-strapping her bag to the roof but instead opened the door for her from the inside.

"Hey Hunter." Nikki finished clipping Wilt on and climbed in. "Am I late?"

"Won't be by much." He readjusted the mirror, catching a glimpse of a high-top shoe dangling off the side of the car.

* * *

Nikki was right to bring Wilt. It was nearing the end of the semester which meant no one was doing anything. Just sitting on their phones. Nikki resorted to drawing Wilt, a lot. Come second class he decided to sit on the floor beside her and fell asleep. He was plenty tall enough that his head rested perfectly on her shoulder. She didn't mind, clearly. It was her last class. She'd constantly been glancing around all day, hoping someone else would see him, but no one mentioned the nine-foot creature following her around.

The trip to the front was through the gym hall, and Nikki had been called up there. She woke Wilt and started out, only realizing he wasn't following after she was past the gym. She turned...and he was digging around in the basketball cage that was sitting out in the hall.

"Wilt Michaels!" She turned on heel and started back, unamused. Hearing his full name made him jump, and basketballs went everywhere. Nikki barely caught one that came her way and another knocked her in the chest. "Seriously?"

"Sorry." He muttered. "I kinda want to play."

"Maybe I'll get you a basketball one day, but right now we need to get out of the hall so no one sees me talking to an invisible force holding six basketballs in the air."

"Oh...right." He dropped the basketballs back into the cage and started picking the others up.

* * *

That wasn't the last day Nikki brought someone with her. The next morning she was trying to fit Wander in the back seat of Hunter's car without confusing him. "Hold still."

"Ah'm tryin, but that seat belt tickles!" The nomad shrunk back the third time she tried to clip it.

"Finally. Stay." She put her bag in his lap and climbed into the front seat. The drive was silent, other than the very dim radio sounds that were constantly on. When they got to school Nikki didn't say a word as she climbed out, Wander following. She quickly snatched her bag from him and reached in to give Hunter a kiss on the forehead, then took off running inside. She had realized a little late the nomad would go crazy if he let that register.

As soon as he caught up with her, he was shooting questions, which she answered quickly and quietly.

"Ah had no IDEA mister Fenton was your boyfriend!" Wander was bouncing.

"Hunter. His name is Hunter." Nikki hissed through her hood. "And we've been together for two years."

"That's amazing!"

"Wander it's not...well considering out of all my friends I have held the longest relationship, I guess that is...kind of amazing." She grinned down at the nomad. "Thanks buddy."

"Course!" He skipped along beside her in silence to the classroom, where he waved at the other students and made a face when he got no response. "Rude."

"They can't see you, Wander." Nikki sat down and pulled out her laptop. This class did almost nothing so the majority of Nikki's time was usually spent drawing with her...barely functional tablet. While she was doodling a comical persona of her classmate, Wander scooted over next to the blonde and tried to introduce himself. He proceeded to do the same thing with another student, then two others before giving up and climbing onto Nikki's head.

"Wander!" She hissed.

"Ah'm bored."

"Then sleep." She went back to drawing the girl next to her, and in about ten minutes Wander's weight on her head got heavier. He'd taken her advice, but didn't move. Now she had a furry orange hat.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent with Wander riding Nikki's head, occasionally waving at someone or dozing off. But it was in History he was most active, trying to participate even.

"Ah know, um, it was Kennedy!" He shouted during a callout quiz.

"That was a long time ago. Obama." Nikki clipped. The quiz ended quickly and Wander went back to trying to help her with her worksheet. Moments later the teacher slipped a couple words to a student...and the nomad went almost ballistic. He began to scold as if the teacher could hear him, Nikki merely shaking her head and not trying to stop him. Silently she wondered why she never brought them to begin with.


	4. Silence of Losses

**_AUTHOR'S NOTE_**

_**If anyone is unable to cope with reading about death please skip this chapter. The events here ARE based on true events that happened to me minus a few somewhat obvious details.**_

_**Thank you.**_

* * *

A few months passed and Nikki and Andy continued to try and see what they could do with the imaginaries. A few mistakes caused the house to become even more full than it was and they had decided to make a list of who was there. School time was easier for both of them with the others helping out.

Nikki had a job at the Golden Corral, Andy's grades were rising. Hunter proposed to Nikki, in which she swiftly responded with a yes. A cat that Nikki named Maleficent appeared with five kittens that she flat out adored feeding.

The last week of school before Nikki was out, however, turned into an utter disaster.

* * *

Hunter had gone to stay with his aunt and Nikki was waiting on the notification their plane landed when she received a text...it was almost impossible for her to finish reading it and Asriel, who had been with her that day to help with the post office, immediately saw her face screw into horror.

"Chara?" He leaned up from the back seat and put a furry paw on Nikki's shoulder, rearing back when a strangled sound erupted from the redhead. It grew into a sob. "Chara, what's wrong?"

"He's gone." It was a breath of a sentence, almost impossible to hear unless Asriel strained his ears. Nikki began to type frantically, silently turning her hat to cover her eyes and stare blankly at the screen. a shudder went through her.

"He's...?" Asriel sat back as the reality clicked. Hunter. Nikki's boyfriend-recently-dubbed-fiance. Gone. They both jumped when the phone rang, and she quickly answered it. The other side was hysterical sobbing, which caused her tears to return.

"Andy...Andy calm down..." She begged. Asriel could barely make out a broken "it's a lie" from the receiver before silence filled the car, save for the hiccups and whimpers from Nikki and Andy.

* * *

A week. A week and nothing had changed in Nikki's countenance. She was barely responsive and constantly sat with her phone in her face.

"Lass? Are ye gonna eat?" Foxy peered around the closet door nervously. Last time he was assigned to ask, she threw her stuffed chameleon at him. There was silence and after a moment she grunted. He gave a relieved sigh and then made a horrible shriek as a bra landed over his snout. That was a clear no. Foxy retreated into the closet, tossing the linen on the floor. Nikki went back to staring blankly at her phone.

"That. Fricking. Does it." Bill had been watching from her desk and jumped down, hoisting the redhead up into his arms and startling her.

"William! Put me down!"

"We are going outside!" He responded, ignoring the whack on the head she gave him when he took her phone. "You need to realize you exist, Red."

"I know that! Put me down, I was talking to Andy!" She squirmed in his grip, then went limp and crossed her arms as they went out the door. "You're paying for this." Nikki hissed. Bill shrugged slightly and dropped her on the bottom ladder step to the pool. She stared at it and shook her head.

* * *

The next few days were the others attempting to get her to do something. Nikki slowly began to act a little more normal, and once she had to return to school for graduation practice it seemed like she was okay again.

Until that is, Ivy happened.

Ivy was the kitten that Nikki had been trying to nurse back to health since Maleficent disappeared, leaving the kit on the front porch. That was the only thing Nikki would do willingly, take care of that kitten. She was happy around Ivy, or so it appeared. The imaginaries assumed that was the case.

So when Ivy wouldn't come out of her little crate, where she was left during the day when Nikki was at work, it was worrisome. Nikki reached in and tried to tempt her with food or a toy, then went tense. She picked the kitten up gently, which would typically get a hiss or a squeak of contempt. Silence. Ivy was limp.

"Ivy, come on little one...wake up." She pulled the kitten out more and anyone in the room could see her entire being wilt. "Ivy-" Her jaw set stiffly and she pressed the kitten against her ear for a moment.

The screech was horror, disbelief, and pain. The imaginaries watched as Nikki's grandmother came in to attempt to help her wake the kit, who was breathing but so far apart it was obvious what was happening. Ivy twitched a few moments before slowly going limp one last time.


End file.
